The IKIGAI WArrior’s Journey for Inclusion — Anusha Subramanian
I am often asked as to how I have been able to do what I do? The answer to this question is simple. If you have the passion and you are clear in your head you want to follow your passion, the path automatically gets chalked out for you. Yes, it’s difficult in the initial stages but, not impossible at all. So when I quit my plush journalism job in one of India’s leading Business Magazines as its Associate Editor, I had the confidence that I will end up with something better. There was absolutely no doubt in my mind. I am reminded of my entrepreneur friend’s words, “Confidence comes first, Capability will follow”.
My Life as a professional full time Journalist
I was born with a nose for news. I was a curious child and wanted to the Whys and How’s of everything. Sooner as I started growing up, I was mesmerised by the TV news and those days Door Darshan, the national news was a must to watch in my household. I was fascinated by the news readers and I wanted to be a newsreader. At this point in time, the concept of a journalism career was not very concrete in my mind. But, as I was getting closer to entering college, as a young teenager, I was clear as to what I wanted to do. I wanted to be a journalist and worked towards being one.
In (Year)I commenced my career as a general news reporter with one of Mumbai’s leading tabloids Mid-Day. I worked across some very prestigious publications such as Business Standard, Hindustan Times and Business Today, India’s leading business magazine and part of the India Today Group. (In Year), I quit Business Today as its Associate Editor.
I wanted to excel in my profession, and I did in my own respect and I am thankful to all my editors who have been excellent mentors to me. The year,2012, was a turning point in my career as a journalist. I got the British Chevening Scholarship in South Asian Journalism Programme and was in London for three months. While, I was in London, back in India I won the Press Club’s Red Ink National Award for excellence in journalism in 2012 for my investigation into to how environment clearances are given out for projects by the Environment Ministry. Everything was fine but, yet I felt something was missing.
I had switched from a daily hard-core newspaper reporter to being a magazine journalist writing long form articles. I had spent 7 long years in a magazine and the boredom was getting on to me and wanted to do something more in this space. I was also opened to trying Broadcast Journalism, but there were no options available for my level of seniority and internal transfers within the media group I was working was not happening. I thought to myself, do I want to continue and be happy or should I just quit? I did speak to few of my friends and colleagues and everybody asked me to be cautious as I had decided to quit without a job. Some even told me that I had just come back from a scholarship, won an award and therefore should just wait it out for a while. Precisely was my answer getting promoted and if you are unable to use your achievements to help others then what is the point? Was the question in my head.
I loved my job as a journalist. I think the 25 long years, I worked as a mainstream journalist has been memorable in every way. I have had my ups and downs but, who does not have in their jobs. It’s part and parcel of every profession.
I decided, I will quit because it was no point continuing being unhappy in your job. You would not do justice to yourself and you would not do justice to the organisation you are working for. I quit mainstream journalism at end of 2012 without another job in hand.
All I had with me was confidence and my capabilities to do something better going forward.
Life after quitting main stream journalism
My second love was sports and I was a National level Basket Ball player while in school and college. But could not pursue that as a career. While I played Basketball, I also used to trek a lot and loved being in the outdoors. I started trekking as young as 7 years old and since then there has been no looking back. I followed my passion for mountaineering and trekking even with my busy job as a mainstream journalism. Even with a job, I made sure every year, I take off on one high altitude trek or climb for about 20 days. I have done high altitude trekking and climbing in Uttarakhand, Arunachal, Himachal, Ladakh Himalayas and Nepal. I also have trekked in the UK, US, and SE Asia.
It is during my stint at Business Today that I also got permission for two consecutive years to go and do my mountaineering certification courses. Today, I am a trained and certified mountaineer from Asia’s premier mountaineering institute Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, Uttarkashi, Uttarakhand. My training and certification in mountaineering is helping a great deal. I have been able to apply my skill sets in the right places. Sports has taught me to be disciplined both at work and in pursuing my passion. I till date have not left the habit of waking up early and working out for an hour.
But, my journalism combined with my mountaineering and trekking has taught be to be more patient, resilient and take decisions in more a concrete manner. It has helped me a great deal in my communication skills. So, both Journalism and Mountaineering have gone hand in hand. I must say I have been lucky to be able to pursue both my passions.
As they say, there is always something better out there for you and honestly, the day I quit, immediately two days after, I set out alone on my cycle and rode solo from Mumbai to Goa. I needed that time for myself to think through and also celebrate my freedom. As soon as I came back a fresh, I started getting some content related and research work that kept me going and earning my bread and butter. I am a very practical person even when I quit without a job, I knew I had a plan on how I could make close to what I was making every month. I continued doing some freelance journalism work as well but, wrote on adventure sports, travel, social good stories etc. Being a freelancer, in 2017, I won my second Red Ink award for my investigation into how two police constables from the state of Maharashtra faked their Mt Everest Summit in May 2016.
Giving Back and starting an entrepreneurial venture
I have always been finding ways to give back to the society in some ways. I would do that with my freelance journalistic articles or by way of trekking and mountaineering. Butthe June 0f 2013 completely changed my life around. I ended up going for a rescue and relief operations in Uttarkashi, Uttarakhand when the flash floods had struck the whole state and especially the district of Uttarkashi.
I got the opportunity to work with Bachendri Pal, India’s first woman to be on top of the world for over a month reaching out to people in far flung villages that could be travelled only by foot. We travelled to several villages and were able to provide relief for over 1500 to 2000 people. Soon after completing the relief work, I felt it was job half done and I started my own social initiative called Summiting4Hope (S4H) along with my friend Guneet Puri to help out the mountain folks by raising funds for causes through an adventure sport activity. Guneet and I did our advance mountaineering course together. Our first project was under S4H where we organised a fundraising expedition to Mt Rudugaira (5819m) in October, 2013 in aid of those affected by the floods in Uttarakhand in June of the same year. We successfully summited the peak. The second project we immediately undertook was to raise more funds and helped build the home of a local girl who lost her home in the floods. She now freelances with us in BA as a mountain guide.
Soon after this, we realised that it was in the Himalayas where our true calling lay. In 2014, along with one other woman mountaineer friend Shashi Bahuguna, Guneet and I, started our own Adventure Sport Company-Bohemian Adventures. The idea was to do something more constructive in this space with the skill sets we all had. And also inculcate and train more village girls to take up a career as a trekking guide. The mountains are our home and as we do what we do best here, climb and trek, we also aim to give back to our home by providing a sustainable economic scenario to its residents. As far as possible we try to provide our guests a glimpse into the lives of the mountain folk, their culture and traditions with home stays along our trek routes. Today, BA is certified and recognized by the Uttarakhand State Tourism.
Amidst all this I still hold a day job as head of content and communications for a preventive healthcare company. The company has been kind enough to allow me to pursue my passions on the side. One must wonder why do I have a day job, well, one has to be practical if one has responsibilities to handle.
While, I still lead treks for BA, I have been more involved with S4H. Under S4H, we have done several projects with NGOs whose work we resonated with. In 2014, we through S4H volunteered with Goonj and worked towards setting up relief camp in Kashmir and served over 2000 families in villages in and around Srinagar that was affected by the floods. In 2015, S4H raised funds for Goonj for Nepal relief and I spent 3 months in Nepal working with GOONJ and reaching out to far-flung villages in Nepal with relief.
On a regular basis, we also sponsor young mountain girls through S4H or in our personal capacity to do their mountaineering courses and then train them to become mountain guides. Some of these girls now work with us in our commercial operation BA as freelance guides.
For the last three years, I have been wholeheartedly working towards spreading awareness about inclusion of persons with disability in the outdoors. I had started work on this through my social initiative Summiting4Hope in association with ABBF (Adventures Beyond Barriers Foundation), an organization that promotes adventure sports among persons with disability and able body people. Between 2016–2018, I did few projects through S4H and also helped out ABBF as a volunteer-sighted Ally. In 2017, I participated in India’s first tandem cycling expedition from Manali to Khardungla organized by Adventures Beyond Barriers Foundation (ABBF) and raised funds of ABBF.
In 2018, I conceptualised, planned and led India’s first inclusive climbing expedition (comprising 3 blind men and 10 sighted climbers) to Mt Kilimanjaro, world’s highest free- standing mountain in Tanzania, Africa to a successful summit in September 2018 and also raised funds for ABBF through the climb. It was a joint expedition between S4H and ABBF.
Personally, for me climbing or trekking has been much more than just a personal achievement. As a trained and certified mountaineer and a mountain guide, I have always focused on taking as many people to the mountains irrespective of whether they can or cannot. Climbing over the years has taught me lots of patience and resilience.
Since 2019, I have started working in this space on my own with few other like-minded people. We have a small support group called ‘Insight’ that has been formed for persons with disability. The support group meets once a month in Pune and is a mix of able-bodied and persons with disability. The idea is to build more social awareness, make the PwDs more confident and help them come out confidently and embrace life.
As part of my voluntary work in this space, I recently completed a 50KM trail challenge with my blind partner Sanket Bhirud in about 16 hrs and 31 minutes. It was Sanket’s first ever long trek. Sanket is a tandem cyclist and a marathoner. But, he said yes to the trail challenge by purely trusting me.
The outdoors can be exhilarating, inspiring, and even therapeutic. One thing is that they’re not, unfortunately, easily accessible to everyone. While trekking a mountain or running a marathon are pursuits that can be enjoyed by a majority of people, the reality is that taking part in outdoors activities has and is often challenging for people with disabilities. Limited accessibility in outdoor recreation areas means that many people with disabilities have never experienced hiking on a trail or marathon or scuba diving they have the assistance of others. Finding assistance is also a difficulty.
A lot of people find me inspiring when they hear or read what I have done. Honestly, I do not want to be I want to build more social awareness and empathy. It is need of the hour for every individual to recognize this lacunae and act upon.
Now, I divide my time between my day job and on weekends spend time taking people to the outdoors through my own venture Bohemian Adventures and climbing and cycling for causes and writing.
Mountains and the Outdoors do not differentiate between anyone and why is it that we differentiate among people. Why people with disabilities cannot enjoy a life like you and me do. Why can’t they step into the outdoors and soak in the beauty of the nature? There are many such why’s but, I rather concentrate on what can be done. “I have always believed that to change something, Be the change yourself”. I have been practicing this for the last couple of years. I now have aligned myself to a cause of bringing diversity and inclusivity of Person’s with disability in the Outdoors. It is about cultivating a more inclusive space in outdoors for one and all. Why should anyone be left out?
With inclusion, a lot can be achieved.
